Monday, April 09, 2012

Weekend Herb Blogging #328 - Recap

Whether you celebrated Easter or Passover or just indulged in a little too much chocolate, I hope you've all had a wonderful time.

In all the recaps I've done, I seem to notice that there is always some type of connecting theme running through it - in this edition, you could say that it's regular ingredients finding an unusual purpose or maybe unusual ingredients finding an everyday purpose. Whichever it is, the end result is delicious.

Janet's dishes are always quite inspiring and this week she's made vegan naan bread using banana. Regular naan is made with yoghurt and mashed banana is a brilliant substitute giving the naan the softness and moistness it requires.

Stash is spending the year cooking seasonally and as a result he is experimenting with new ingredients and new ideas and this dish is testament to that philosophy. In this salad you'll find cooked dandelion greens, ramps and baby carrots gently sautéed in olive oil and chilli. They are then dressed in an olive oil, lemon juice and carrot top vinaigrette.

There's a feast of new and unusual ingredients in Cheah's dish - cloud ear mushrooms, red dates, wolfberries and foo yue - which is fermented beancurd that comes in two colours, red and white. Cheah tells us that red foo yue is used in meat dishes while the white is used in vegetable dishes.

In the southern hemisphere there is certainly a new chill in the air so I think Brii's homemade tonic for a sore throat will be very handy in the coming months. Lemons and ginger are chopped and place in a small sealable jar and then covered with honey - this then sits in the frige for a couple of weeks where the lemon and ginger will break down. To use just add a spoonful of this syrup in a cup and top with hot water.

It's not too late for some Easter baking and these gorgeous easter cookies couldn't be easier. Who could resist these buttery cookies scented with lemon or orange zest and topped with almonds and granulated sugar or coloured confetti?

Annie has shared a twist on osso bucco making it with sliced lamb shanks. The lamb is first rubbed with a spice mix - a blend of rosemary, thyme, fennel seeds, pepper & coriander - and then sautéed before it slowly cooks on a bed of onion, carrots and celery. Annie finishes the dish with gremolata but replaces parsley with coriander.

I must put up my hand and say that I am addicted to purple carrots and Paalo will testify that I seem to be putting them in every savoury dish I can find. Johanna has kindly helped my addiction and supplied another use - as an ingredient in soda bread. I know how good this bread was so excuse me while I get baking!

Thank you so much for this lovely recap, Haalo, and even though some unusual ingredients will be absolutely out of touch here in Italy it's always interesting to know about them and how to use in the kitchen :-)

Wonderful round up Haalo, always something new to learn.I'm a fan of beet root, love it raw in salad, but can imagine it is delicious in a jam!We still have some lamb in the fridge, so I will try Annie's recipe at once.I'm sure Florian will appreciate!Thank you for hosting.Baciussps. I'm the one of the sore throat syrup :-)